[Pre-U] ELL Lore

Written by: Victoria Er, Adeline Mah, Dorothy Ong and Choy Jack Kie

What ELL Lore is

Bite-sized, just-in-time, easy-to-read, with a chockful of great examples of how English Language and Linguistics (ELL) continues to be an important and relevant discipline today. This is what ELL Lore, a termly emailer for the ELL fraternity from Terms 1 to 3, is meant to be.

How ELL Lore came about

The idea for ELL Lore was seeded in 2021, when 2 ELL teachers joined the ELL team in the Pre-U Unit. In sharing their experiences teaching ELL at their respective schools, they noted that having additional resources that were bite-sized and current would have been a welcome help. Teaching a small-candidature subject such as ELL often came with manpower and resources challenges, exacerbated by the straddling of subjects. In addition, teachers new to the subject would need additional training and resources to build up their capacity to teach the subject. While CPDD provides access to academic journals and e-books that are updated yearly, many teachers might not have the time to read given their already stretched schedules. Thus, the ELL Lore was conceptualised and created to aid schools build up of resources and highlight relevant e-book or journal articles and current world affairs that would bring Linguistics theories to life for the students.

Behind the scenes of ELL Lore

In the planning stages, the team uses an Excel sheet hosted on MSTeams as a repository of ideas and resources that they come across. Ideas and resources are then discussed and captioned before being selected to be featured on ELL Lore. Once the resources for each segment are confirmed, an officer puts them together on a beautifully designed emailer using Canva.

What ELL Lore comprises

ELL Lore comprises five bite-sized sections:

• ELL in the News (2 news articles showing the relevance of linguistics in real-world contexts)

• Hey It’s Babel! (highlighting a relevant article from Babel Magazine)

• Watcha Reading? (1 chapter from an e-book)

• What’s Trending (linguistics in popular culture)

• ELL Voices (featuring one ELL teacher, intended to build a sense of community among the fraternity)

The impact of ELL Lore

While ELL Lore is still in its infancy, the fraternity has provided positive feedback on its usefulness. They have also found it much easier to access the resources CPDD provides (i.e., the magazines and e-books). The team will be gathering more feedback and information during school visits to fine-tune the ELL Lore and ensure it fulfils its purpose of helping teachers in teaching and learning.

Learning points

The team understands that innovation requires a deep understanding of teacher needs. In order to develop resources that are helpful, we have to “walk the ground”, constantly be in touch with the users, and be ready to make adjustments and shifts when needs change. As CPDD officers, this means that the partnership and relationship with our teachers are crucial. With good rapport, trust and meaningful relationship-building, teachers will be more open to sharing their needs openly and from there, officers can ascertain how we can innovate to better support our teachers on their journey.

Find out more about ELL Lore Issue 1 and Issue 2!

https://www.ellb-pdgo.com/ell-ebulletins